“As Martin wrote in her book “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters,” the process of plucking, primping, dieting, exercising, and striving to conform to beauty standards–and hating themselves when they inevitably do not (who can live up to perfection itself?)–sucks up much of women’s time and energy that could be used to affect positive change for themselves and others.“

Cool idea from the article on how to combat Photoshopped idea of beauty:

“To attack the culture of false ideals, another participant came up with a “reality stamp”–a certification to be used for media products that don’t alter their images with airbrushing or photoshopping. As Martin says, it would give “leverage” to consumers but by celebrating the good media outlets rather than decrying the bad ones. This idea seems to have potential to gain traction, considering that some media outlets are already self-advertising as photoshop-free, sensing a consumer backlash.”

“In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?”~ Gabrielle Roth